Date: 2014-07-23
Type of information: Construction of a production plant
Compound:
Company: Merck KGaA, Merck Serono (Germany)
Therapeutic area: Cancer - Oncology - Women's health - Cardiovascular diseases - Metabolic diseases
Type agreement: construction of a production plant
Action mechanism:
Disease:
Details: * On July 23, 2014, Merck KGaA ’s Executive Board met in Shanghai, a month before the groundbreaking of its new pharmaceutical plant in Nantong, which from 2017 will be the Group’s second-largest pharmaceutical manufacturing facility globally. Merck currently employs more than 2,000 people at over 40 sites in China, with the most important products including Erbitux® to treat cancer, Gonal-f® to treat infertility as well as life science tools and liquid crystals (LC) for flat panel displays. In total, Merck has committed more than € 100 million to investments in China over that past three years. Next month, groundbreaking is planned for Merck’s new € 80 million (650 million Yuan) pharmaceutical manufacturing plant in the Nantong Economical Technological Development Area (NETDA), in the Greater Shanghai region (Yangtze River Delta area). Completion of the facility, which will focus on bulk production and packaging of Glucophage®, Concor® and Euthyrox®, is scheduled for 2016, with commercial production starting in 2017. Merck’s brands for the treatment of diabetes, cardiovascular diseases and thyroid disorders are referenced in China’s Essential Drug List (EDL), making Merck KGaA the first and only multinational company in China to dedicate a large scale green-field investment towards the production of drugs on the list comprising medicines that satisfy public healthcare needs and must be made available at all times.
In addition to investments in drug production, Merck has also expanded its services for biopharmaceutical research and development customers. Recent investments by the Merck Millipore life science tools business include the Biopharmaceutical Technical and Training Centre in Zhangjiang Hi-Tech Park, Shanghai. This center provides support, training and validation services to biopharmaceuticals customers with operations in China. The facility enables customers to investigate, explore and optimize their upstream and downstream processes as well as environmental monitoring processes. In Beijing, where Merck Serono’s Chinese headquarters are located, Merck Calso runs a research center focused on biomarker research, including pharmacogenomics and bioanalytics, which is part of Merck Serono’s stratified medicine approach. In addition to these investments, Merck counts on an extensive network of collaborations with leading academic and medical institutions in China, as well as local companies. The latest collaboration agreement with a Chinese company, announced in November 2013, is a second co-development and commercialization agreement with BeiGene, which will further strengthen the companies’ collaboration in oncology.
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